Fanaa and French Revolution. Yup, they got nothing in common!

[dangermousie]

OK, this is actually about all the people who hated Fanaa because it was unrealistic. You know, Fanaa. The movie whose one-line summary is "A blind girl and a terrorist fall in love." And it's a summary known basically to everyone who went to see it. This is not going to be a slice of real life, kitchen-sink drama, and you know exactly in advance what it's going to be. That's right, an epic, angstorrific melodrama, like so many other Bollywood movies. You've been warned. This is the genre it's in. It's like going to see MI3 and complaining there is too much action or some slasher flick and complaining about the violence. You can complain if the romance or the action or the horror is badly done, but you have to look at the movie within the confines of its genre.


If you like your movies kitchen-sinky, why would you see it? Actually, why would you enjoy Bollywood? I have yet to see a mainstream Bollywood movie which has much in common with little, everyday life stuff a la cinema verite. The second half of Chalte Chalte comes the closest, but still...not so much.

Fanaa is not about realism. It's about larger-than-life love and tragedy and emotion and colors. It's a melodrama the way the old Victorian plays were, designed to induce a certain emotional state. Like so much of the best of Bollywood, actually. Bollywood is the cinema of emotion. It is going to have unrealistic situations by its very definition. But the reason I love Fanaa and so many other Bolly movies is because while the circumstances the characters are put in may be unlikely, the characters' reaction to them never is, and the emotional truth comes through. Aamir stumbling through the snow to end up on Kajol's doorstep? An unlikely situation (though fitting picture perfect within the genre and the story. Inevitable. I let out a satisfied sigh when it happened). But her confusion and loneliness and newly found hard edge and his slow thawing and emotional overload and desperate 'what-if' are so real it hurts.

In other, completely unrelated news, I've been reading the essay aliterati recommended on Robespierre by Hilary Mantel. I think I have a bit of a girl-crush on her now. That site has a lot of thoughtful essays and they are not all about the French Revolution either. There is a fascinating one about saintly fasts in the context of anorexia. Btw, Hilary Mantel is a novelist who wrote the best novel about the French Revolution I've read, called A Place of greater Safety which is the interconnecting stories of Danton, Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins (if the book has a main character, it's him). According to aliterati, she started the book in love with Camille and ended it in love with Robespierre but it was too late to re-write. I am not complaining since there are plenty of books about Robespierre and Danton and not that many about Camille.

And to go on a tangent, I remember reading Carlyle's The French Revolution and thinking how differently the historians used to write. Because I mentioned Camille, here is how Carlyle introduces him:

A fellow of infinite shrewdness, wit, nay humour; one of the sprightliest clearest souls in all these millions. Thou poor Camille, say of thee what they may, it were but falsehood to pretend one did not almost love thee, thou headlong lightly-sparkling man!

Or this description of Robespierre (whom he clearly wasn't fond of, sorry aliterati): With a strict painful mind, an understanding small but clear and ready, he grew in favour with official persons, who could foresee in him an excellent man of business, happily quite free from genius. Ouch.

Or on Danton: The great heart of Danton is weary of it. Danton is gone to native Arcis, for a little breathing time of peace: Away, black Arachne-webs, thou world of Fury, Terror, and Suspicion; welcome, thou everlasting Mother, with thy spring greenness, thy kind household loves and memories; true art thou, were all else untrue! The great Titan walks silent, by the banks of the murmuring Aube, in young native haunts that knew him when a boy; wonders what the end of these things may be.

Can you imagine a modern historian writing so? But I actually rather like it. It makes for a hell of an entertaining read, if nothing else.

And of course, the Georgians were struck by the 'romantic,' just the way we are. Just see this: Camille's young beautiful Wife, who had made him rich not in money alone, hovers round the Luxembourg, like a disembodied spirit, day and night. Camille's stolen letters to her still exist; stained with the mark of his tears. (Apercus sur Camille Desmoulins in Vieux Cordelier, Paris, 1825, pp. 1-29.) The citation at the end is rather anticlimactic :) (I did read some of them, as well as his other stuff, and he was quite a good writer. Understandably angsty and self-pitying in the letters to Lucile that Carlyle mentions though).

Of course, whatever Carlyle's historical biases, he was an immensely readable writer.

And thus ends this digression from anything...

Comments

[elspethsheir.livejournal.com]

I love your whole discussion about the French Revolution! (This is too strange, as I was just Sydney Carton in an LJ guessing game, and Georges Couthon and Danton were also mentioned.)

Speaking of Camille Desmoulins, have you ever read Tanith Lee's The Gods are Thirsty? I'd never even heard of the one you mentioned, but I shall seek it out!

(Weak segue: have you ever read/heard of Camille Naish's Death Comes to the Maiden - Sex and Execution 1431-1933? The French Revolution is one of the areas she covers; the focus is on condemned women throughout history.)

Now I must read this essay - what a great site!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about TGaT, and I've read "The Silver Metal Lover" by Lee and loved it, so I am going to seek it out.

Camille Naish's Death Comes to the Maiden - Sex and Execution 1431-1933

I haven't heard of it, but it sounds fascinating. Must seek it out.

And I just have to mention your LoA icon! This is my favorite movie, bar none and this icon is just perfect. Have you read "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" the movie is based on? I found it crazily poetic and very distinctive. I know you are an Amelia Peabody fan (from your lj interests) and I have to admit I always thought she based grown up Ramses a bit on TE Lawrence...

[elspethsheir.livejournal.com]

I always felt badly that TGaT didn't receive more recognition; it's so different, and incredibly moving!

Camille Naish's book is difficult to find; I borrowed it from university years ago and then special-ordered it at an outrageous price. It pops up on ABE, from what I've seen!

I adore Lawrence - loved the movie, because I take after my mother (who used to wrap herself in a bed sheet at age ten and pretend to be him). Nothing is written! The quote in this icon! That movie is one big collection of greatness. And Seven Pillars of Wisdom - the dedication page is amazing in itself, and the story of losing most of the book and re-writing it... well, is it any wonder that it's an incredible tale?

I hadn't thought of a Ramses/Lawrence resemblance! I am re-reading the Peabody books from the beginning, and now I'll pay special attention to Ramses as he ages.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Guuuuuh, icon! I want that library, whatever it is.

I adore Lawrence - loved the movie, because I take after my mother (who used to wrap herself in a bed sheet at age ten and pretend to be him).

Heeeee. I saw it my senior year of college, with my best friend, and we ended up being in absolute shock. It was a tiny screen and a bad VHS copy, but still, I've never been so bowled over by a movie before or since. Actually, my friend never watched the second half, because she'd fallen in love with the character and told me she couldn't bear to watch stuff happen to him.

Years later I was lucky and was able to see LoA on a giant screen. Wow. I also think O'Toole's performance is about the best I've seen. Have you ever read Dorothy Dunnett? P O'T as Lawrence reminds me greatly of Francis Crawford, the protagonist of her "Lymond Chronicles."

Seven Pillars of Wisdom - the dedication page is amazing in itself, and the story of losing most of the book and re-writing it... well, is it any wonder that it's an incredible tale?

My friend gave it to me as a graduation present and I've loved it ever since. It's such an incredibly beautiful yet personal writing. Amazing.

The funny thing is, I went to a talk once at which the speaker was Elizabeth Peters and she said about "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" that she could never finish it. Struck me as odd, because I couldn't put it down...

And yes, the dedication:

I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands
and wrote my will across the sky in stars
To earn you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house,
that your eyes might be shining for me
When we came.
Death seemed my servant on the road, till we were near
and saw you waiting:
When you smiled, and in sorrowful envy he outran me
and took you apart:
Into his quietness.
Love, the way-weary, groped to your body, our brief wage
ours for the moment
Before earth's soft hand explored your shape, and the blind
worms grew fat upon
Your substance.
Men prayed me that I set our work, the inviolate house,
as a menory of you.
But for fit monument I shattered it, unfinished: and now
The little things creep out to patch themselves hovels
in the marred shadow
Of your gift.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Re: Fanaa not being about realism. BW period is not much for the whole realism thing. Which is why my brain goes to a completely different state of mind before watching a BW movie. But for some reason my brain didn't prepare itself for watching Fanaa and I couldn't get over the cheese and hard to believe aspects. Bad luck, I guess. Which is why I think I need to see the movie again.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

The moment I see a realistic BW movie, I'd be quite sad :)

It's funny because I really do watch BW with a different part of my brain. As long as it works for me emotionally, I'd overlook anything :)

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Same.

For myself, a suspension in reality and a sense of humour are required :)

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I think one reason why anyone would expect Fanaa to be realistic is Aamir. DCH was certainly masala but very real at its core story, the friendship between the three guys and their characters - everyone knows that Akash joker type and that Siddharth artist type. RDB is Bollywood realism at its best - not boring but fantastically entertaining while real and thought-provoking.

But even though Aamir says that in order for him to do a film, the story has to be good, Fanaa is the kind of film that even if some things seem iffy about the script, no actor would turn down playing a character like Zooni or Rehan just because the plot has some holes and some unrealistic stuff. It's such a story. The characters are gripping like that.

Bottom line is that I never went in looking for realistic portrayal of Kashmir politics. That would've been just setting myself up for disappointments. Also, Kajol's character and her patriotism totally shows she's a FILMI character, not a depiction of real actual Kashmiris and their political stands.

And c'mon, nuclear missile? It's so totally BW. ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeeee. That's an excellent point about Aamir, and I didn't think about it. I guess when I think Aamir, I think Aamir of things like Raja Hindustani and Dil and QSQT as well as RDB and DCH. Also, I was so surprised by the realism of RDB that I think it sums up my whole Bolly attitude. Any time a movie is going to be realistic, I will be surprised. And if it's an epic romance done by Bollywood, it can't be realistic by definition :)

But I can see why people would expect otherwise.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Aamir stumbling through the snow to end up on Kajol's doorstep? An unlikely situation (though fitting picture perfect within the genre and the story. Inevitable. I let out a satisfied sigh when it happened). But her confusion and loneliness and newly found hard edge and his slow thawing and emotional overload and desperate 'what-if' are so real it hurts.

Oh yes! Although is Bollywood a genre? Or is it more of a mode? A style? I don't know; there are genres within Bollywood. Although the concept of genre helps to understand the expectations that audiences bring to the films.

The slowly-recognising scenes in the second half of Fanaa are phenomenal.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True, Bollywood is more of a mode, it has genres in it. Or I guess you can call it a genre and the rest are subgenres? But I agree, it's a narrative mode, one I love. In some ways it reminds me of a mix of Victorian novels or silent film.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

It's pure melodrama. Well, not pure, because when is melodrama ever pure? It hoovers up everything to further its aims. But then, some scholars argue that all of Hollywood is melodrama, too. Just a different kind of melodrama, I'm thinking.